TimM's Starting Strength Log (Rippetoe)

[TimM]

Tuesday April 10:
Weight: 226.4 lbs.
Body Fat: 32.5%

Started today. My gym has four squat racks and four flat bench presses, none were in use at the time but it was not very busy this afternoon. For some reason in the last week they got rid of their one power rack, so I just did the bench presses with no spotter on the regular benches. Should be fine for now while I'm at low weights - and they are pretty low, at least I have room to move. My BF% is very high, I need to get this down. I used this Estimated Calorie Requirements calculator and got a much lower number, some 500 calories less, when I used body fat instead of height.

Workout A:

5 minutes warm-up on recumbent bike.

Squat:
45 x 2 x 5
65 x 1 x 5
85 x 1 x 5
95 x 3 x 5

I need to work on form here, particularly balance and staying on heels. I thought I was having failure on some early reps of the work sets until I got back on the heels and it was fine. Knees were OK, some clicking and popping though since I'm old. Also need to get some flexibility in my arms and upper back as it was pretty painful to hold even the empty bar in position.

Bench Press:
45 x 2 x 5
65 x 1 x 5
95 x 3 x 5

Was OK except I should have done an 85 x 3 x 1 in there somewhere. I was going to do that with the 95 but it was hard enough so I made it the work set instead.

Deadlift:
45 x 2 x 5
95 x 1 x 5
135 x 1 x 3
165 x 1 x 5

I used the squat rack with and removed the pins for this, so that the unweighted bar would be off the floor. I'll probably just start at 95 next time and later 135, it's easy enough.

7 minutes HIIT (30 seconds "jog", 30 seconds "sprint") on recumbent bike. One minute to be added per week.

Now that I have some idea what my target weights will be, I will try to add and taper off my warm-up sets as recommended. I was in and out of the gym in less than one hour today. I won't bore you guys with updates every single workout, after Thursday when I do Workout B for the first time. My main concern is to get that BF% down and that's going to take time.

[kyleb]

Looks good man. Best of luck!

[Thremp]

Usually sets X reps is the typical lingo.

Good luck.

[TimM]

Thanks guys...

[ QUOTE ]
Usually sets X reps is the typical lingo.

[/ QUOTE ]

Doh, fixed now.

[Spellmen]

I might start my own log, but there are a ton of Rippletoe logs going on right now so this question is probably appropriate here. Right now even with the day of rest I'm typically still pretty sore from squats. It seems pretty stupid to do squats while I'm still sore, so will probably only do them Mon/Fri right now and add in Wednesday when my legs start getting stronger (pretty pitiful right now). Any suggestions on what to add until then? Currently doing military press, pendlay rows, and pullups

[TimM]

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showpo...mp;postcount=8

[TimM]

Thursday April 12:
Weight: 224.2 lbs.
Body Fat: 32.5%

I was a bit sore last night for the first time in a while, so I definitely hit some areas the machines did not. In spite of the soreness, bowling was still good:



I still can't hit a 700 series though. I shot 699 a few weeks ago. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]


Workout B:

5 minutes warm-up on recumbent bike.

Squat:
45 x 1 x 5
65 x 1 x 5
85 x 1 x 3
95 x 1 x 2
105 x 3 x 5

Getting better at form with the squats, holding the bar with a lot less pain, no knee clicking.

Shoulder Press:
45 x 1 x 5
55 x 1 x 3
65 x 3 x 5

These were tough. I was struggling on the last set and I'm sure my form was not very good. I'm going to stay at 65 for one more session, considering this a trial session. I used to stall on these with the dumbbells too, but there I could only increase by a minimum of 5 lbs. per side.

Pendlay Row:
45 x 2 x 5
65 x 1 x 5
85 x 1 x 3
95 x 1 x 2
105 x 3 x 5

Same with the rows. I will keep the same weight for just one more session to make sure the form is good.

7 minutes HIIT (30 seconds "jog", 30 seconds "sprint") on recumbent bike.

I'll update in a few weeks, hopefully I'll be lifting more and will see a drop in the BF%.

[TimM]

I'm starting to get plate envy. Guys who don't look much bigger than me are putting up multiple pairs of red plates (45s) and I feel pretty weak in comparison.

My work sets so far:

Squat: 140
Bench: 115
Deads: 195
Press: 70
Rows: 115

Failed on last rep of last work set on the bench with no spotter and and had to roll the bar down my legs.

The Press at 70 is much too close to my 5RM and I'm going to roll it back to 60 and microload from there. More info here. I ordered a set of these, which are not much more than a good set of adjustable ankle weights.

I'm going to try to divide the warm-up sets a little evenly. I was going too close to my work set weight on my last warm-up set, and spacing them out more will reduce the total volume so that I have more left for the work sets.

[TimM]

6 weeks in:

Squat: 195 (these are getting tough but still able to add 5 lbs every workout)
Bench: 125 (having trouble getting the last couple reps of the third set)
Deads: 245 (going up 10 lbs. every "A" workout)
Press: 70 (I backed off to 60 and started microloading, going up in 2 lb. increments now)
Rows: 125 (maybe got too high here, have to check on the form)
HIIT: 12 minutes (going to 13 next time)

[theblackkeys]

wow good job dude.